Show Jack-Straws By Jack Wallis The recent efforts of the Ute Indian Tribe to get their Ute Compact agreement accepted by the State of especially in the recent session of the have been frustrating to many living in the Uintah For 74 the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation has been confined to an area surrounding the town and headquarters of the With the addition of the Mill Creek the present trust lands of the Ute Tribe consist of a little over Prior to the date the original Uintah Indian Reservation was opened and the lands returned to the public domain for sale under the Homestead the Uintah Indian Reservation contained roughly million This was most of what Is now referred to as the Uintah The United States paid the Utes for a forest some land was sold and the land not homesteaded in the former reservation reverted back to federal Now the Ute Tribe claims tt should be given back the lands in the original reservation for hunting and and that they should be given civil and criminal Jurisdiction as well as the water rights and within the original exterior boundary of the Ashley Valley to the state line and an equal distance to the west was never included in the original Indian The Utah legislators and the Ute representatives in the recent session of the legislature argued over a few deer and the length of the deer but the real as we see are the Utes entitled to the original boundary or aren't Was the over acres making up the difference between the present reservation and the original reservation taken from the Ute Indians And if this land is given what about other former Indian lands across the United Shouldn't they also be given back to the Indian We don't ee how the present Ute Indian demands can be solved through The Issues must be decided once and for all in the courts of the The unfortunate result is that in the the development of tl Uintah Basin faces possible stagnation as everyone-waits out a long court which could last 10 or 15 While the Indian Issue is being let's all work together to build up the Uintah Basin area and strive to make it an even choicer place for white and Indians to |